Now, there are two ways of looking at the difference as far as our moral obligation
in the New Testament versus Old Testament.
There are two different ways of looking at this, okay?
I'm going to try and make this real simple.
There's two different ways to look at the change from Old to New Testament.
One way that you could look at it, and here's the thing, either way you look at it, a lot
of people still kind of arrive at the same point.
So either way you look at it, as long as you end up arriving at the same point, it's not
really a big deal.
But I'm going to tell you what I believe to be the right way of looking at it, okay?
But there are a couple different ways that Christians will look at this, that Baptists
will look at this, that your typical evangelical Christians will look at this.
They're either going to say, hey, we only follow things that are reiterated in the New
Testament.
You know, whatever's reiterated in the New Testament, that's what we're going to follow.
And since 9 out of 10 are reiterated in the New Testament, have fun finding a New Testament
command after the resurrection of Christ that says, hey, keep the Sabbath.
You know, you'll find tons of commands like that in the Old Testament.
But if it's such a big deal, like the Seventh-day Adventists want to convince us, isn't it funny
how they don't have any clear New Testament scriptures telling us after the resurrection
of Christ, hey, be sure to keep the Sabbath?
You don't have anything like that.
Everything else is reiterated.
So some people's attitude is, hey, the Old Covenant's not enforced.
So only that which is repeated in the New Testament is what we're going to follow, okay?
Another way of looking at it is this, and here's what I believe is the right way to
look at it.
The right way to look at it is, we're going to follow everything in the Old Testament
that has to do with morality, that has to do with right and wrong, we're going to follow
everything in the Old Testament except that which is specifically changed in the New Testament.
Now let me tell you why that is a superior way of looking at it and why it's more biblical.
Because of the fact that the Old Testament has so many detailed laws about morality and
rules about right and wrong that are not repeated in the New Testament that we need, that we
need.
Okay, you say, what are you talking about?
You know, for example, there's no New Testament command not to marry your sister.
But wouldn't we all agree that God still doesn't want us to marry our sister, he still
doesn't want us to marry our auntie, he still doesn't want us to uncover the nakedness of
grandma or whatever.
You know, there's all these lists in Leviticus chapter 18, don't uncover this person's nakedness.
Not your grandma, not your uncle, not your aunt, not, you know, he goes through all these
different things.
I mean, it would be ludicrous to say, well, that's not reiterated in the New Testament.
But folks, you'll run into some silly people who actually think that way.
You'll show them a verse in the Old Testament that says, a man should not put on a woman's
garment.
A woman should not put on that which was prepared to a man, and there's, oh, that's Old Testament.
Really?
So we're going to get rid of that now?
So in the New Testament, cross dressing's fine.
Marrying your sister's fine.
I mean, that's ludicrous.
Now, I'm not saying that everybody who looks at it the first way is ludicrous like that.
Because remember how I said sometimes people, either way they look at it, kind of end up
at the same place?
Some of the people that look at it according to model A, this is what they would say to
that.
They'd say, well, when the Bible says things like uncleanness, lasciviousness, concupiscence,
it's encompassing all that.
You know, a word like concupiscence, lasciviousness, uncleanness, hey, obviously, that's going
to encompass things like incest, cross dressing, you know, all the things that are specifically
given us.
But we can still look to the Old Testament as a general guideline for how to live our
lives, to figure out what God thinks is right and wrong.
I mean, how do we know what God says is right or wrong?
We get it from the Bible.
And we don't just get it from the New Testament.
We get it from the Old Testament because the Bible says that all scripture is given by
inspiration of God and is profitable for doctrine, but not only doctrine, correction, reproof,
and watch this, instruction in righteousness.
So any scripture can instruct us in how to be righteous.
But that doesn't mean we're going to keep the Sabbath because guess what?
That is specifically changed in the New Testament.
I could point to specific scriptures in Romans, Galatians, Colossians telling you no about
the Sabbath, about the feast days, about the Hebrew calendar.
And again, it's outside the scope of this sermon to go into all those details.
But the point is that the Old Covenant is not in effect, the Ten Commandments don't
have some special exalted like, well, you know, other stuff went away, but these 10
are in stone.
Yeah, they're in stone that was shattered.
Where are those stone tablets anyway?
Oh, yeah.
Moses broke them.
Moses shattered them.
Then he made another set.
He had to make a second set because he shattered the first set.
Okay.
Where's the second set?
Oh, well, it's in the Ark of the Covenant.
The Ark of the Covenant is gone.
And by the way, the Bible says in Jeremiah 3.16, talking about the millennium, that the
Ark of the Covenant is not even going to be a thing when Christ returns.
I'm sure the Antichrist will pull out some bogus Ark of the Covenant.
But you know what?
The Ark of the Covenant is done because it's the Ark of the Old Covenant.
That's why it's not even a thing in the New Testament.
That's why Jeremiah 3.16 already prophesied that it would go away.